IT WAS the kind of cash demand that would have had senior bank executives spluttering in to their morning coffee.

The court order clearly stated that Barclays was being asked to stump up a colossal £748 trillion in compensation to the former owner of a Spanish bank it acquired 25 years ago.

Last night Spanish court officials said an investigation was under way to discover whether a monumental clerical error was to blame, as suspected, for the number of noughts in the compensation figure.

As Barclays made clear it would not bear the burden of any final settlement awarded, it was still unclear last night what was the true level of recompense being sought.

The amount - ?1.1 quadrillion (a quadrillion is 1 followed by 15 zeros) - is the equivalent of 1,400 times Spain?s gross domestic product, or the wealth Spaniards could generate in 1,000 years. A Spanish judicial oversight body said yesterday it was investigating how such a gigantic figure was reached.